Regulation
PBGC Unveils 2026 Premiums With Modest Adjustments
The rates that pension plans must pay the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will increase slightly next year.
Reported by James Van Bramer
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation released its 2026 premium rates—the insurance costs that corporate pension funds make to the federal guarantor—showing modest increases across the board.
The PBGC insures private sector defined benefit plans covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and those plans must file yearly information to the PBGC and pay the insurance premium to the agency, per the PBGC’s regulations.
The flat rate premium per participant in single-employer plans will rise by 4.7% to $111 per participant in 2026 from $106, the PBGC announced Monday. The rate per $1,000 in unvested benefits, not subject to indexing, was frozen by Congress in Section 349 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 and therefore remains $52.
For variable rate premiums, the per-participant cap will rise 4.7% to $751 per participant. Meanwhile, multiemployer plans that only pay a per-participant premium will see the per-participant rate for flat rate premiums rise to $40 from $39.